Wilmette man, 46, charged with knowingly transmitting HIV

A personal fitness trainer from a Chicago suburb has been arrested and charged with knowingly transmitting HIV to several women he was dating.

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Prosecutors claim that 46-year-old Jimmy Amutavi of Wilmette repeatedly had unprotected sex with the three women and later denied having the virus, even though he was diagnosed as early as December 2001.

Amutavi was the personal trainer for all three women between April 2015 and this year and started a monthslong relationship with each of them.

Amutavi, of the 1100 block of Central Avenue in Wilmette, was charged with three counts of criminal transmission of HIV, a Class 2 felony.

If convicted, Amutavi faces three to seven years in prison for each charge, the Tribune notes.

The state of IL has had a criminal transmission law since 1989, but made the transmission of HIV a felony with a change to its statutes in 2012.

Amutavi's defense attorney said that his client, father of a 5-year-old son, had been taking retroviral medication that made it almost impossible for him to transmit the virus that causes AIDS.